Two gypsies decide to spend the night at the castle of Count Wolfstein. Wolfstein who was a werewolf has been dead for a long time. Wolfstein's guests decide to look for the treasures of the Count and accidentally resurrect him. Count Wolfstein comes back to life and the locals must hunt down the beast. A nobleman named Waldemar Daninsky joins the forces to track the werewolf down but is bitten by the werewolf. Now he's doomed to be a werewolf himself. It appears that there's only one man can help him, Dr. Janos Mikhelov. Waldemar however doesn’t know that Mikhelov is a vampire and unfortunately for Daninsky has plans of his own.Paul Naschy a.k.a. Jacinto Molina Alvarez was born on September 6th 1934 in Madrid, Spain. Before starting to act he was a very successful professional weightlifter. He also studied architecture and started designing album covers. In 1958 he won the Spanish National Weightlifting championship. Because of his physique he started to get roles of extras in various movies, such as the Biblical epic King of Kings (1961). After a couple of movies he decided to stop acting and began to write screenplays instead. He was always fascinated by old horror movies, especially Frankenstein Meets the Wolfman.

Horror movies weren't popular in Spain in the 60's. The country was ruled by Generalissimo Fransisco Franco who wouldn't allow horror movies. So it was virtually impossible to get finances for a horror production locally. When Jacinto Molina wrote the screenplay of La marca del Hombre Lobo he didn't know what to do with it. He approached his friend Enrique López Eguiluz, who was a director. But Enrique told Molina he was insane. Luckily Hi-Fi Stereo 70, a German company specializing in shooting in 3-D came to the aid. Originally the producers wanted Lon Chaney Jr. in the role of Waldemar Daninsky but Chaney turned the offer down because of his age. They couldn't find another actor and according to Jacinto Molina one day the producer stared at him and asked to take the part. Molina told the producer he had no experience for such a complex role, he wasn't an actor. But as the producers had no luck in finding another actor Molina took the part. After the shooting had been done Jacinto got a call from Germany. He was told he had to change his screenname into more Anglo-Germanic. He had to do it himself or the producers would choose the name they wanted. Molina chose to do it himself - Paul Naschy. He took the name Paul when he saw the portrait of Pope Paul VI in a newspaper and invented Naschy from the name of a Hungarian weightlifter Imre Nagy. The film had success outside of Spain. It was released in the USA in 1971 as Frankenstein's Bloody Terror and was cut by several minutes. The film was a success in France too where Naschy was offered a role in a new Daninsky movie, Las Noches del Hombre Lobo. Nowadays it is considered to be a lost movie. It has never been released theatrically or on home video. The long journey of the doomed nobleman Waldemar Daninsky was about to begin...

Video

La marca del Hombre Lobo comes on a 25GB single layer Blu-ray. It is presented in 1080p, framed at 2.35:1 widescreen. Subkultur did a marvelous job on the transfer. Colors look natural, there's a healthy layer of natural grain. I didn't notice any signs of DNR, compression artifacts or other anomalies. The picture is very nicely detailed and looks very filmic. Top notch job from Subkultur!

Audio

We get two audio options: Spanish and German in DTS-HD Master Audio Mono. Optional German and English subtitles have also been included. No issues with the soundtracks. Both sound fine and are easy to follow. The English subtitles are easy to read.

Extras:

We get German and US trailers, a TV spot and a picture gallery.

Final Thoughts

La marca del Hombre Lobo is the first major role of Spanish horror king Paul Naschy, the birth of a new horror star, Paul Naschy and the beginning of the long running series of movies about Waldemar Daninsky. One of the first horror movies made in Spain. It's a very enjoyable movie with good gothic atmosphere, fine directing and good make up effects for its time. Subkultur Entertainment did an admirable job on this release. This is the definitive release of the movie so far. It's also available on DVD that comes with the Blu-ray. The edition is limited to 1500.
Despite the fact its light on extras I can't recommend this release enough. The movie is hugely entertaining, the transfer is excellent. Well done Subkultur, well done!